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Speak to me

So, it looks like Google are going to be joining Apple and Microsoft by putting their digital assistant on their desktop OS. For some reason they are going to be adding a dedicated button on Chromebooks to access it (why can't they just access it with a long press on the search key or the 'o' menu thingy? It is accessed with a long press on the home button on Android; surely there's a case for consistency across devices, especially when Chromebooks are increasingly usable in tablet mode and that 'o' button becomes much more like Android's home button).

Speak to me

But do we really want it? Apple has seen a 15% drop in people using Siri over the last year despite it becoming available on more and more devices. Is the voice assistant race going to turn out to be just another fad?

Speak to me

Voice assistants might make sense on small screen or no-screen devices where input is more tricky, but the laptop/desktop is a productivity machine with keyboard and trackpad and things to help you work faster. Do we really want voice assistants slowing us down?

Speak to me

Windows 10 already has the Cortana button right next to the home button in the bottom left corner (yes, that button you disabled the first day you got Win10 and then forgot about it) but I don’t think I’ve ever actually used it.

Speak to me

Would I use it more if it was Google Assistant instead of Cortana? Maybe, if it was coupled with Google Now cards and reminders about appointments and stuff.
The fact that you can already sort of use the Google Search bar for Assistant type actions kinda makes it redundant, my chrome browser is already open all the time.